Have you repurposed lately? A "new countertop"

Have you all survived the dog days of summer? We have cooled down here. I actually had to break out a hoodie the other night. Also for the first time in a long time, the thermostat dropped below 70. We don't have central air. That isn't possible in some parts of the country and with these summers getting hotter it might not be possible here much longer.

We were both on vacation last week! I don't have any tropical paradises to share with you, I have something better! Lots of transformations from around the house. It was quite the productive vacation. I, do, get the impression Jim would have liked to relax a little more than we did, but...

Our vacation accomplishments include:
1. An overnight stay with my family. We picked up my Grandma's china cabinet and lots of other goodies while we were there. Made some memories.

2. Picked lots of produce from our garden and canned most of it!

3. Got the china cabinet(s) rearranged and the clutter from that project put away in time to cover the dining room table with the contents from the pantry and all the cupboards near the pantry. I wish I had taken a photo.

4. The dining room table was covered in kitchen products because we added 5 feet of counter space!

5. Some little projects with things that had been sitting around the house.

6. Repurposed another old ladder (this one my Great Grandfather's) into a quilt rack.

7. We visited the moving Vietnam Wall while it was in town. Had birthday dinner with some friends that night too.

8. Jim made an amazing dinner on my birthday and peach crisp from fresh local peaches. YUM!

9. We hit a couple sales and found a few good buys.

10. We watched a lot of Olympic coverage.

It was a productive vacation. I didn't have to go to the office and that was what mattered!!!

Today's post is about number 4! The counter space. We called it "Operation More Counter Space"

Here is a peek at the end product!

And now here is the story.

These two pieces play a very important role in this story.

We picked the door up at a place in Pittsburgh called Construction Junction. It has been sitting in the basement ever since, just waiting for its "new life." The shutter came from a sale somewhere and has also been waiting for its "new life."

When we bought the house we gutted the kitchen. Yes, I mean gutted!!!!

Jim's Mom redid her kitchen about the same time so we received all the old cupboards out of her kitchen.

They were ours to use as we pleased. One of the pieces was this AWESOME pantry with spice shelves on the inside of the doors. We loved the pantry so much and had it in our heads where it was going that we saw nothing else. The doors on the bottom right are the doors to the pantry. We made the rest of it look like it was one piece. Pretty cool, but.. if we take it out, we can GAIN 5 feet in counter space!!

Here is a peek to the inside, including the spice shelves.

The original cupboards have been in the basement serving a purpose in Jim's shop.

So while things were displaced upstairs, there were plenty of things displaced downstairs, because Jim had to empty this puppy out to bring it upstairs.

Needless to say, this blue wasn't welcome in the kitchen.

Painting must be done.

 The drawers after a coat of paint.

Oh my!!! Look at that wall.

The things you forget about once you cover them up!!

LOOKING BETTER ALREADY!!!!

Don't ya think??

Here is where the shutter comes into play...

Yes, I started grinning at this point.

We took the pantry outside and cut it to the size we wanted.

We brought it back in and...wah lah!

A look at the shutter being painted.

Had to start somewhere and the shutter seemed like the best place since it was the piece holding some suspense!

A look at the paper that lined only ONE Of the drawers.

IT IS GONE!!!!!

All painted up and put back together!!

Can you tell there is a shutter there at first glance?

How about a door?

The door is our NEW countertop!!!!!!

We even kept the hardware!

Please pardon the clutter on the table, but it is canning season...

We also had this cabinet upstairs.

If you look in the picture just above this one you can see this cabinet now hanging on the wall.

I LOVE IT THERE!!!!

I now have a towel draped over the door as well as the ladle holding the candle that can be seen in the next picture.

This basket and candle holder were displaced because we, ok Jim, used one of the "leftover" pieces of the spice shelves as a spice shelf. It was painted up and hung here.

Pretty Nifty huh?

Here is a close up look at the cabinet in its new home!

Want to know why the right door is closed?

First, if it were open it would be in the way when you came in the back door.

Second, it is hiding the bottles that hold the liquid that gets poured into 

the glasses you can see. ;)

In the end, we gained 5 feet of counter space and actually gained cupboard space too!!

It just changes the whole look of the kitchen!!

The only expense we had was a piece of plywood to make the bottom for the "upper cupboards."

I still walk in and am amazed at how different it looks and that our countertop is A DOOR!!!!

What is your favorite part???

Update 8/19/12! This post received the "I think outside the box" award at My 1929 Charmer. Thanks Cathy!!

Partying at the following fun spots!!!

Have you repurposed lately?

A couple weeks ago we went to our friend Steph's to help her give her kitchen some character! I packed up a box of "tools", yard sale purchases, ideas etc and Jim packed a tool bag and off we went.  Here we are going to share with you the pictures for two of the projects! We had fun, spent some quality friend time together and made some memories!

At one point we had one of those three tea light candle boxes with the little rocks around the candles...you know the one I'm talking about. It just wasn't working anywhere it was put.  I took the candle holders and put them in the cupboard, pitched the little stones (they made a mess anyway) and tucked the box that held all of it away for "something." The something that we don't know what it is, but one day it will come to us. YEP! That one.  Well the one day came when we started talking about Steph's kitchen and she wanted to do a wine theme. Steph's Mom provided us with the corks (Thanks Peg!)

If only I had a picture of the look on Steph's face when I put the empty candle box on the table and told her my idea. She thought I was nuts! Jim might have thought I was nuts too because I left him in charge of putting the corks inside! A couple of weird looks and an unknown number of thoughts later this is the wine cork project.

Jim did a test run before hot gluing the corks in. Once  had the design he took the corks out and set the design on the table and then glued them in one by one. This is a look at it part way done! Looking good!

All the corks in! Jim trimmed some of the corks to help them fit!

Hot glued some jute around the box! Steph braided some jute together to make the hanger for the piece.

The leaves and grapes are from another piece in the stash that her Mom had given her! That was our trick for covering up the nail in the wall!!!! :)

Project number two was completed by Jim at our house. He took measurements and made some sketches Friday night and Saturday morning he got up and brought them to life. What to use? What to use? Let's have a look in the "inventory", shall we?

Look at all those projects in one place! LOVE IT!!!!

Jim picked the shutter from above and cut it to the dimensions that he had written down the night before. This is the piece we he didn't use for the shelf (give you one guess why I am not showing the piece he did use...)

Look at it all dusty. While dust is part of the fun it was time to transform this shutter into something new and exciting and that is exactly what Jim did! From drab to fab!

We went shopping for 'hooks' for the shelf and found an amazing deal. The 'hooks' were on clearance for $1.24 each.  We like bargains!

...and Steph's Facebook post said "I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new shelf!" WE love YOU, Steph! It was fun to hang out and help out.
Have you repurposed lately and if so, what?
Thanks for stopping by. We love reading your comments! Have a great day!!!
~Jim and Jen

Have you repurposed?

Have you repurposed? Turned something old into something new? Found a new use for something old. We find repurposing fun! There are a few things in the following picture that have been repurposed.
1. The shutter! We picked up a handful of shutters for a couple $$ at a yard sale.
2. The 'shelf supports' are from an old wooden bed frame. I was to the point of wanting to get rid of it, boy am I glad someone talked me out of that!!!
3. The 'hook's...old window hardware.
4. The small crow on the left side of the shelf...made from pallet wood!
5. The crow's base, part of that above mentioned bed frame! yep, super glad I didn't end up tossing it!
We saved some space in the landfill and gained a pretty cool shelf and a crow shelf sitter!

What are your thoughts on repurposing?
Thanks for stopping by ~Jen